May 25, 2005
Funny figures
It is difficult to make much sense of the election figures flying around at the moment.
On one hand, the results trickling in from the National Election Board paint a very consistent picture. After an initial surge for the opposition when the results for Addis Ababa were recorded, they have settled into a steady two-for-one lead of the ruling EPRDF over the opposition CUD. It has been the same pattern for the past two or three days.
On the other hand, CUD officials yesterday said that they had already won more than 50 per cent of the seats in the House of People's Representatives, according to their own count of woredas. They also claimed they already had official receipts from the National Election Board proving they had won 155 seats. Basically they are saying that they have won the election through the official count, irrespective of any claims or counter-claims of irregularities at the polling stations.
So will there be a sudden rush of results from opposition constituencies - completely against the pattern of the 157 seats that have already been announced through the NEB's website (see right hand column)? Or has the opposition over-estimated the number of its official victories? I am sure a lot of you out there will have much darker conspiracy theories to suggest.
Claim and counter-claim update #4
Opposition party threatens to boycott parliament
ADDIS ABABA, 24 May (IRIN) - Ethiopia's main opposition party on Monday threatened to boycott the next parliament unless its complaints of alleged vote rigging in last week's general elections were resolved. Hailu Shawel, leader of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), said his party would not join any government if it believed that the elections were unfair. "The probability is high that we will not be part of this government - any government," he told reporters at the CUD headquarters in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Posted by aheavens at May 25, 2005 6:14 AM